Walid Jumblatt
Walid Jumblatt was born in Beirut, Beirut Governorate, Lebanon on August 7th, 1949 and is the Politician. At the age of 74, Walid Jumblatt biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Walid Bey Jumblatt (born 7 August 1949) is a veteran Lebanese politician and one of Lebanon's Druze's top politicians, President of the Progressive Socialist Party.
Early life and education
Jumblatt was born in August 1949, the son of PSP founder Kamal Jumblatt. He is Emir Shakib Arslan's maternal grandson. Walid Jumblatt obtained a bachelor's degree in political science and public administration from the American University of Beirut in 1972.
Personal life
Jumblatt married an Iranian actress ten years his senior at the age of 20. His father did not approve the marriage, and the two families became estranged. Jumblatt married Gervette, a Jordanian of Circassian descent, in 1981, after a divorce and his father's death. They had three children together: Taymour, Aslan, and Dalia. Nora al-Sharabati, Ahmad al-Sharabati's daughter, later married him later. In 2018, Taymur Jumblatt's son was recalled as a candidate in parliamentary elections.
Career
Upon graduation, Jumblatt worked as a reporter for An Nahar in Beirut. The BBC describes Jumblatt as "leader of Lebanon's most powerful Druze clan and heir to a leftist political dynasty based around the Progressive Socialist Party". Assem Qanso of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of Lebanon accused Jumblatt of abandoning his father's beliefs. On 12 January 1982, he survived a car bomb explosion near his house in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. In July 1983, after Amine Gemayel became president, Suleiman Frangieh, Rashid Karami and Walid Jumblatt formed a Syrian-backed National Salvation Front to challenge Gemayel's rule and the pact between Lebanon and Israel that was financially supported by the US. Jumblatt served as minister of public works, transport and tourism in the National Unity cabinet led by then prime minister Rashid Karami, which was formed in May 1984. His main ally during the war was Amal Movement's leader, Nabih Berri.
In the 1996 Rafic Hariri cabinet, Walid Jumblatt was appointed Minister for Refugees. He was a supporter of Syria, but following the death of Syrian President Hafez Assad in 2000, he campaigned for Damascus to relinquish control. Jumblatt's close links with the Syrian old guard alienated him from the new presidency of Bashar al-Assad. This pitted him against then president Émile Lahoud and the Lebanese Shiite party Hezbollah of which he said: "Their fighters have done a good job defying and defeating the Israeli army, OK, but the question we ask is where their allegiance goes: to a Lebanese strong central authority or somewhere else?" In the 2009 general elections, Jumblatt won a seat from Shouf as part of the 14 March Alliance list. Following issues with Hezbollah's community, his son Taymour Jumblatt fled to France with his family after multiple death threats which prevented him from joining the local political scene.
With the onset of the Syrian civil war, Jumblatt and the PSP moved towards an anti-Assad stance. Jumblatt has been crucial in negotiations regarding the Syrian Druze during the Syrian Civil War, and has stated about al-Nusra Front "I cannot classify, like Western countries, Nusra as terrorist because most of Nusra are Syrians. The regime of Bashar obliged the Syrians to join Nusra". After al-Nusra Front allegedly killed 20 Druze villagers in Qalb Loze on 10 June 2015, Jumblatt responded that "Any inciting rhetoric will not be beneficial, and you should remember that Bashar Assad’s policies pushed Syria into this chaos".
Jumblatt believes that the order to kill his father came from Hafez al-Assad. He said he would rather "commit a political suicide" than reconcile with his son Bashar al-Assad.
In 2014, Jumblatt declared himself in favor of the legalisation of cannabis in Lebanon. In 2015, he admitted hiding the Swedish spy Stig Bergling during the early 1990s in a remote place in Lebanon upon the request of Russian authorities. On 4–7 May 2015, Jumblatt testified at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon related to the investigations of the assassination of Rafic Hariri.
In May 2017, the trial of four men accused of conspiring to assassinate Walid Jumblatt began.